Anna Narvid says that teaching mindfulness to kids is an “extraordinary way to help them generate esteem, cultivate calm, and deal with difficulty.”
Photo by Leo Rivas.
Anna offers some thoughtful and beyond-the-usual ideas for practicing ‘meditation’ with children. Try a few, then let us know how they work for you and yours.
Meditation for Children—2 Simple Exercises
Drawing Meditation
- Sit down with your child in a quiet, comfortable spot
- Allow your child to pick one object in the room to focus on
- With your child, look at the object and describe what you see
- Have your child draw the object as best she/he can
- Together, descriptively compare and contrast the drawing and the object
- If your child seems finished with the exercise, then you are done—if not, continue…
- Now, choose a different place in the room to sit
- Look at the object again from this alternate location
- With your child, look at the object and describe what you see
- Repeat the exercise until you feel your child feels like she/he is finished!
Reporting Meditation
- Toward the end of the day, sit with your child in a quiet, comfortable spot
- Ask your child to go through the day in his/her mind
- Next, have your child narrate the story of his/her day.
- Help your child identify the order of events chronologically
- Repeat back what your child has detailed and allow him/her to clarify, correct, or confirm
- When the conversation feels complete, you are finished!
Thanks for referencing my article and promoting the techniques I suggest. I have personally had great experiences with various mindfulness activities. My individual journey to wellness supplies personal direction and exclusive understanding of meditation as a principle, practice, and pursuit; however, a sole perspective is a limited one. Meditation, for me, calls for a collective consciousness. I look within to better see without. For children, the "I" and the "me" are simultaneously ever-present. As an adult, I trusted the children I had been working with (Youth & Families Coordinator for Colorado and Wyoming 2003) to be my teachers, my mentors, my guides. The 3 simple–and fun–exercises detailed in the article were some of the fruits that ripened after reflective contemplation, cooperative discovery, and communal enjoyment. I honor our community as we search within, seek awareness, stir creativity, and sense peace. I welcome dialogue; I welcome ideas; I welcome support; I welcome guidance.